- Author: Passion
- Date: October 9, 2023
- Updated: October 10, 2023
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Once an ally to Kael’thas Sunstrider, Lana’thel fell against the Scourge in Northrend. Revived by the Lich King, Lana’thel was made the blood queen of the San’layn.
This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to deal with Blood-Queen Lana’thel and her crimson thirst.
Role Summaries
- Gather at a pre-designated spot when linked with Pact of the Darkfallen.
- Remain spread at all times.
- Break Incite Terror as soon as possible.
- Plan your Vampiric Bite target ahead of time.
- Move Swarming Shadows out of the raid and away from the linked spot.
- Save your raid cooldowns for Bloodbolt Whirl.
- Avoid staying in a single stack.
- Make sure both tanks are first and second on threat for the first few seconds of the fight.
- Stay put during the flight phase so Lana’thel returns to her original positioning.
- Call out the first Vampiric Bite target.
- Call out Frenzied Bloodthirst Phases.
- Call out Air Phases.
- Call out the names of linked players.
Abilities
Blood-Queen Lana’thel
Raid Composition & Preparation
Heroic vs Normal
On normal difficulty, Presence of the Darkfallen will not be active, making Shroud of Sorrow significantly less dangerous.
The Pull
Before starting the fight, be sure your UI will correctly display bonus abilities. If you are unsure your UI will, create this macro ahead of time:
#showtooltip
/cast Vampiric BiteBetter be safe than sorry!
The Fight
Ground Phase
Lana’thel may very well end up being one of the three hardest fights in the raid, being on a strict timer and requiring players to dynamically adjust to mechanics.
Vampiric Bite is this fight’s most iconic mechanic. 15 seconds into the fight, Lana’thel will use Vampiric Bite on the player third on threat. This will turn give them the effect Essence of the Blood Queen, turning them into a vampire for the fight. This effect will double your damage dealt, as well as healing you for a small portion of damage dealt, as well as removing all threat generation. After a minute, vampires will enter Frenzied Bloodthirst, requiring them to bite another player using Vampiric Bite within 10 seconds or become Mind Controlled. This will create a new vampire, and cure Frenzied Bloodthirst. This effect will happen once a minute, requiring all vampires to bite a player. This means that the number of vampires will double every minute, a vital mechanic for beating the strict enrage timer.
There is no universal rule for who to bite first, but having an established order can make it significantly less chaotic during the 10-second Frenzied Bloodthirst window. Bites also deal a significant amount of damage, so make sure you don’t kill anyone! Keep in mind to not bite a healer, as they receive no benefit from the effects. 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the fight you will have 16 vampires, meaning that one minute later a lot of your vampires will be Mind Controlled. This creates an effective limit of 5 minutes and 30 seconds to finish this fight.
You will need two tanks for this fight, consistently staying on the top 2 for threat. 3 seconds into the fight, Lana’thel will link the two players on top of the threat with Blood Mirror. This causes the off-tank to take Shadow damage equal to the damage the main-tank takes. The off-tank will never have to actually tank the boss, and as such should equip high Stamina gear, instead of avoidability and mitigation. Every 20 seconds, Lana’thel will use Delirious Slash on the off-tank, dealing a portion of her auto swing damage to them, as well as a Bleed for 15 seconds. Delirious Slash cannot be avoided, giving even more reason to focus on high Stamina gear.
Roughly every 15 seconds, Lana’thel will cast Twilight Bloodbolt on a random non-tank. This deals significant Shadow damage to the target, as well as hitting everyone within 6 yards with Bloodbolt Splash. To avoid this, the raid will want to always remain at least 6 yards away from each other. Melee players should avoid standing in one giant stack, instead opting for 2-3 smaller stacks to mitigate portions of Bloodbolt Splash.
Shroud of Sorrow is a constantly active aura, dealing Shadow damage every 2 seconds to everyone within 40 yards of the boss, except the off-tank. This is constant raid-wide damage that will need to be handled but cannot be reasonably avoided. For every targeted infected with Essence of the Blood Queen, this will deal 5% additional damage. This will inevitably deal a massive amount of damage as your raid peaks at 16 active vampires.
Roughly every 30 seconds, Lana’thel will link 3 players together with Pact of the Darkfallen. This will deal rapid Shadow damage to the targets and everyone within 15 yards of them. To break this link, all players must move within 5 yards of each other. This should be done using a pre-picked spot. All three targets will want to run to that spot using whatever mobility is available to them to break the link as soon as possible.
Lana’thel will also cast Swarming Shadows every 30 seconds. This will deal rapid Shadow damage to them for 6 seconds, as well as spawning Swarming Shadows at their feet with every tick. This is effectively the same mechanic as the fire during Lord Jaraxxus. The debuffed player should immediately move to a designated area, dropping fire there. It is especially important that this fire never end up near the Pact of the Darkfallen gathering spot.
Flight Phase
2 minutes into the fight, and 100 seconds after that, Lana’thel will move to the center of the room and take flight for 12 seconds. As she takes flight, she will Incite Terror, fearing the entire raid for 4 seconds. Breaking this on as many players as possible is vital. Shamans should place Tremor Totems, and Priests should Fear Ward themselves, followed by Mass Dispels. Undead players can utilize Will of the Forsaken, and Human players can utilize Every Man For Himself.
While flying, Lana’thel will channel Bloodbolt Whirl, barraging the raid with Bloodbolt Whirl. This will deal AoE damage to everyone within 6 yards of the target. This makes it vital to return to a minimum 6-yard spread after Incite Terror. Defensive cooldowns will be important here, both personal and raid-wide.
Once Bloodbolt Whirl has finished casting, Lana’thel will land and resume her normal threat table, starting the Ground Phase again.
Here are some of the main things that can typically go wrong in this fight:
- Failing to spread Essence of the Blood Queen.
- This includes biting someone to death.
- Vampires dying, losing a lot of raid DPS.
- Poorly positioned Swarming Shadows.
- Linked players reacting slowly.
Congratulations on defeating Blood-Queen Lana’thel! Go back the way you came and jump through the new hole in the floor. Time for the next wing.
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